Date: Fri 23-Oct-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Fakes

Full Text:

Fakes, Frauds Or Mistaken Identities

w/3 cuts as slides

CONCORD, MASS. -- A new exhibition at the Concord Museum, "Fakes, Frauds or

Mistaken Identities?," on view to January 3, uses 40 objects from the museum's

collection to look at some of the possibilities for misidentification of

historical artifacts.

It is sometimes difficult to establish a single, coherent identity for

historical artifacts. Objects in the Concord Museum -- an old collection

established before the Civil War -- can have multiple identities. An object

can be changed by use or can deteriorate if abandoned.

More subtly, when an object makes the transition from obsolete to historical,

it may be changed to match expectations unlike those of the original maker or

user. Over time, study and comparison can lead to changes in identification

without any change in the object itself. And finally, some objects are

deliberately misidentified.

Among the objects on display are an oak cupboard that appears to be from

Pilgrim-century Newbury, Mass., but was in fact made in Salem in the 1870s; a

supposed portrait of Henry Thoreau, which was exposed as a fake shortly after

it was acquired in the 1920s and has been in storage ever since; and a

Seventeenth Century style caned chair made in the 1920s, which is identified

by its applied plaque as an innocent homage to a cherished heirloom.

A powder horn with pinwheel decoration and the crowned head of a monarch,

engraved "Concord May 1775/Reuben Hosmer," a case of mistaken identity; a

genuine English hooped silver cann that had its original hallmarks removed and

replaced by spurious Paul Revere marks; a fluted silver teapot actually made

in Paul Revere's shop about 1795, but, in a case of Eighteenth Century

business-as-usual, was marked by Josiah Austin, who bought the teapot for a

customer from the only Boston shop -- Revere's -- that made this specialized

form; and tall clocks, ceramics, high chests, side chairs, pewter, tavern

signs and a 13-star flag are also featured.

The exhibit will be shown in the Graham Gund-designed changing galleries. A

program of talks and lectures will accompany it.

The museum is open Monday through Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, noon to

5 pm, at the intersection of Lexington Road and Cambridge Turnpike. Admission

is $6.

For further information, 978/369-9609.